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Julie Sherman Wolfe Interview · Girls Gone Hallmark | Hallmark Movie Reviews

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, Welcome to a bonus episode of Long Story
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Short the podcast. I'm Megan, I am Wendy, and today
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: we have the absolute pleasure of being joined by Julie
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Sherman Wolfe, the writer of our absolute favorite movie from
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: the New Year New Movies lineup this year, which was
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: taking a shot at Love, and she is also a
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: prolific Hallmark movie writer. We are so excited to talk
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: to you. Thank you so much for joining us.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Thank you guys for having me so much. And I
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: will say thank you again for the amazing art that
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: you created from some of the dialogue and that's how
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: we met and found each other. And I have them
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: ready to print and put them on my office wall,
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: So thank you.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: That makes me hurt, happy, fabulous.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: I love them. I love them. I almost want you
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: to watch every movie I've ever written and make things,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: but I would never ask you to do that. Okay.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: Oh I love a challenge.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: I love a challenge.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: I'm just saying, if you happen to see another one.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: We have been trying to track them down as they
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: are re airing. For those who don't know that, Wendy
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: creates unique images for each one of the Hallmark movies
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: review and you can find those on our Instagram, which
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: is Girls Gone Hallmark. She grabs fun lines from the
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: movies and they're always a surprise to me. That's her project,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: so I love seeing them.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: And my friend Nina, my friend Nina Wineman who I
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: guess say Wineman on TV. Yeah, Nina Wineman. She has
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: another last name in life, but she I actually forward her, forwarded.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: I think you did one for her. I did for
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: hers and she loved it too, So thank you for her.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: So why don't you start by telling us just a
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: little bit out yourself.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Well, I lived, I've been writing for twenty five this years,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: most of those were in Los Angeles, and then thanks
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: to the Hallmark work, I was just able to leave,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: which was my preference. I grew up in North I
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: grew up in northern California, went to school in San Diego,
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: and then ended up in La So I pretty much
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: did the California thing enough and I was ready. Always
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: loved New England, always loved the East Coast, and same
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: with my husband, who grew up in Los Angeles. So
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: when it was clear that the Hallmark thing was working
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: out pretty well, and you know he's a teacher and
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: he can pretty much get a teaching job wherever. We
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: were just like this is now or never. Our son
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: at the time was seven or eight eight, This is
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: about three and a half years ago. He always said,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: this is it, this is our chance. And we just
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: basically found a house. I saw it online. I knew
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: that was exactly the right house and the right town,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: and basically put an offer in, flew there to sign
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: the paperwork. Greg never saw the house till he walked
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: in with the keys when we owned it. Wow, because
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: we knew what We've been looking at houses for fifteen
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: years at that point, like we had the same I
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: knew he would love it. And yeah, so here we
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: are and I have my own little Hallmark world that
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: I live in and there's I'm looking at a ton
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: of snow outside and it's fantastic. I love it.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: I love it. And so my husband is also a teacher,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: and I have to tell you that his lifelong dream
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: in the back of his mind, in spite of never
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: having written anything, is to be a Hallmark movie writer.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Aw So, I'm curious, how did you make the transition?
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: How did you get into writing for Hallmark?
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: So I started in sitcoms. That was where I was
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: for a long time, and then that I had a
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: kind of a dry spell, and then I romantic comedy
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: has always been my favorite genre ever, even before I
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: as a you know, you know, a movie or TV writer,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: that was just my favorite thing. And I wrote a
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: couple of feature films that got sold. One was to
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Disney and one was to Paramount, and that sort of
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: gave me these the samples that I needed to sort
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: of break into the TV movie market. And I was
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: friends with one of the executives at Hallmark for a
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: long time, and it just never it just never worked out.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: And then finally kind of all the stars aligned and
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: I hooked up with a producer and had my first
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: movie with Hallmark, and luckily for me, they just really
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: really responded well to it. And then it just kind
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: of snowballed from there and I did a lot of
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: tween stuff. I did a lot of Disney Channel before that,
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: and the movie that I had written that won an
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: award was a young you know, a ya Disney Channel movie.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: But once I got into the Hallmark thing, I was
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: just so happy and I just kind of didn't even
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: try to do anything else anymore. I you know, I
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: used to have pilots and try you know, sitcom pilots,
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: and I would pitch to to try and run a show,
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: or try and have my own series, or do all
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: these things. And then once I got in with Hallmark,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: I was just fulfilled. I just felt like, Okay, I'm
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: just happy. I can do this forever and as long
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: as they let me, I will. And then so I
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: just you know, a couple of times I've had been
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: approached to develop a series and I'm like, yeah, but
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: then I have to move and back to Angeles. Yeah yeah,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: or in my you know, my son's hit. He's a
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: tween now, and I just feel like I need to
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: be around and yeah, until they decide they're sick of me,
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: I'm just going to keep doing this.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Hey, well, I think you've absolutely found the perfect place
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: for you. And obviously, you know, I was looking at
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: your IMD IMDb page and you are a prolific writer.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, you had three movies in twenty twenty three,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen, four in twenty seventeen, and so I
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: have kind of a two part question. One, how are
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: you turning out this much content? And two. You mentioned
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: that you do some rewriting. So are some of these
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: scripts that come to you like hal to and they're like,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: we like this idea, but it's not there. Can you
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: work your magic?
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah? So I would say that's not most of them.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Most of them were just my thing. The last couple
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: of years is when I really started doing the rewrite thing,
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: only because it was almost like I was doing it
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: as a favor to the executives that I've become close
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: with at Hallmark, where they just really needed and you know,
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: I'd like to keep the boss happy, ye you know.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: And it also is a great way to develop new
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: relationships with producers. And you know, sometimes sometimes the producers
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: will like the script they have turned in and Hallmark doesn't,
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: and so you come in and you're kind of like,
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: you know, well, who's this person going to change everything?
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: But then I I ultimately, you know, I'll win them over.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: But so as far as something like taking a Shot
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: at Love, that was just a script that had been
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: going back and forth and back and forth and Hallmark
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: just wasn't feeling like it was right and I came
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: in and it was a lovely experience and I love
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: that I met these producers and you know, that got
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: made and I feel I still feel like it's my
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: script because I did write. You know, I did change
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: quite a bit, but then you know, the idea, the
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: initial story that was still the same was, you know,
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: ballet dancer helps a injured hockey player rehab an injury.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: You know, but there's a million ways to do that,
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: and sometimes, you know, the initial script can be fine
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: and there's nothing wrong with it, it's just not the
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: way the Hallmark wants it to be. So you know,
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: I don't feel like it was bad, but it just
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: wasn't the way Hallmark wanted it to be. And and
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: you know, at this point, I know the formula backwards
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: and forwards, they just they just sometimes need to bring
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: in somebody who's been around a lot, like a lot
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: longer to sort of put it in that Hallmark place
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: is what it is. And I have another one, actually,
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: I have another rewrite that I just finished that is
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: getting made in March. Same same situation, similar situation where
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: it was the script was good and there was you know,
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: it was a cute idea and everything. It just needed
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: to get that extra little midge to put it in
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: that Hallmark Place.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Is that a summer movie that we can look forward to?
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: There's okay, So there's one that I've had in development
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: for four years that finally got made, and that's for spring,
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: and that's called right in front of me, and I
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: don't know if that's public knowledge, so anyway, it doesn't know.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: They're starting shooting it next week, so it's it's not
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: a big secret that one. That's all. That one's not
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: a ReadWrite, that's just an original. And then the one
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: they're shooting in March is actually going to be for
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: next winter, for that winter Fest.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: I know one of you did not like the new
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: movie New Year. I don't know where that came from,
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: but you know, I call it Winterfest still, and so I.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Appreciate that I was a little harsh on that, but
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: to me, it's always going to be Winterfest in my heart.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: Well that's why I stole Winterfest and put it in
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: as Avon Winterfest, because I'm like, well, Winterfest still is
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: a cool name, so I'm using of it. But I
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: stole it and I used it, and now I'm now
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: I'm convincing the mayor of Avon, who I'm friends with,
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: to make an actual avon Winterfest because we don't have one.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: I'm like I told her, I'd like you had the
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: perfect thing. Now make it happen.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Oh, make that happen.
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: I want to fly out there.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: Are you guys? Are you guys in.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: La Orange County just south of La Okay?
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the only thing we miss is our annual passes
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: to Disney but nothing. You can use them right now,
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: but not now. That was my son basically drew up there.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: And now they've eliminated them all together. They've sunset in
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: the annual pass program. I'm sure it'll come back in
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: summer forever. Well, they are refunding everybody, and I think
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: the issue is when they reopen, they're going to have
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: to reopen in stages with smaller groups. And I think
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: trying to manage, you know, the annual passes, we believe
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: kind of ruined Disneyland a little bit, and so I
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: think they just need a fresh start and trying to
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: manage these million annual pass holders trying to regulate crowds
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: would seems like a logistical nightmare.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: So you know what, you know what killed it? And
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: I know this is off topic. What they messed up
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: was letting people do payment plans. Yes, yep, because then
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: everybody could do it. And then you showed up and
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: like you know, people would show up for two hours
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: and Hark would be packed because there were just you know,
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: took their daily walk on Main Street.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, myself included. I mean we were guilty of that.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: But yeah, it became it got to the point where
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: there was no down there were no off days. There
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: was right time.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: The only day off day was rain and that was
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: my favorite day to go.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah. We Sunday mornings were our favorite. It was the
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: only kind of couple hours of quiet that was really it.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: And we would have to get up at like five thirty.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: I know, I know, nothing better than like empty main Street.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: It's yes, ever, yeah, yeah, I do miss that anyways.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Topic so when you're creating these movies, how involved do
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: you get to be with the production once the script
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: is written?
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: Hm? It just depends. Yeah, it depends on who it is.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: If it's a producer that I'm I've worked with before,
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: they know that. I prefer to take the script all
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: the way through production, which I'm doing right now with
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: the one. There's there's just about the start where even
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: the director is amazing, and it's this woman who is
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: a Canadian woman who I love and we just hit
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: it off so great. And you know, she's wonderful because
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: anytime she's about to change any dialogue or has a question,
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: she comes and asks me. And a lot of times
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: you get these directors who just cannot be bothered with
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: the writer and we'll rewrite whatever they want to rewrite,
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: and then I'll watch the movie and be like, wait,
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: where did this come from? And there's a couple Actually
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: there's one line I'm not even gonna say which line
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: it is, but there's a line in taking a Shot
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: at Love that I did not write that I find
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: cringey and it it I'll tell it to you, off off.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: But that was the one thing that that somebody else
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: wrote that I didn't, I was not involved in, and
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: it just makes me justugh, I hate it. So you know,
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: it just depends. I've had script. I had one movie
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: that I turned it in to the network and I
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: literally never heard from anybody again until it aired. And
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: the director took a path like, you know, wrote did
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: a pass on it, and rewrote a bunch of stuff
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: and I was like, well, I don't know you know,
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: this really isn't I don't even consider it my movie
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: at this point, but whatever, and so it just it
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: really just depends. I prefer with the people that I
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: like to work with, and there's most of them. Actually.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: I have wonderful relationships with everybody for the most part.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: And you just shepherd the script all the way through.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: That's because if you don't, then the voice changes. And
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: that was the problem that I ran into on this
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: other one, where it didn't sound like the same movie
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: because it was some of it was my voice and
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: some was this director's voice. So it doesn't feel right.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: And to me, voice is everything, and that's what I'm
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: that's my that's my thing that I'm known for as
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: sort of the banter. And generally people can tell you
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: kind of my scripts have a tone to them that
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: is very specific to me, and so you can tell
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: what it's not. I try and be as involved as possible.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: So switching gears to writing in a pandemic. You mentioned
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: your husband's a teacher. My husband is excuse me, also
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: a teacher. And one thing that you know we noticed
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: in the transition he taught from home for months and
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: he's a zoom screamer has no sense of his volume.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: So for me, trying to also work in a home
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: where someone who is scream teaching nownstairs change the dynamic
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: of our house a little bit.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: And so you know, with your husband, I would imagine
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: home more than he used to be. Your son maybe
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: doing school at home? Did that change your writing process?
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Did that added challenges for you?
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: Well? Yeah, I mean, because it's funny, So I my
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: workload didn't really change. They all, I was still doing
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: all everything I was doing, but the time at the
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: time of working changed because my son was home. Luckily,
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: in Connecticut, you know, it's pretty rural here. It's not,
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: I mean still, it's still semi urban, you know, it's
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: just it's a nice suburb. Right. So they're back. They're
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: back in school in person for the most part, and
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: then they'll but then they had a hybrid for the
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: beginning of the year, and then every so often the
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: class will get quarantined and then they'll be remote for
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: a few days. So it's like it just kind of
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: goes back and forth. But when everybody's home and I'm
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: trying to write, it's impossible. And I have my own
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: office and I have my door closed, and I have
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: curtains and I have noise machines, but there's always something
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: happening where you know, mom, the Wi Fi is not working,
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: it's glitching, you know, help me. And it's always some
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: there's always some issue right upstairs. And his his the
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: learning if I call it his little annex, his little
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: learning annex, it's right above my office. And there's just
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: always something. And then when it's, you know, time for lunch,
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: I usually try and have him make his own lunch.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: But then, yeah, I'm here and he wants to, you know,
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: I have to go make him go do recess, go
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: down to the basement and work out or do something.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: And I just can't focus on my own screen the
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: way I normally would have before when I had the
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: house to myself, and my husband generally has been out teaching.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: I would say, last you know, last spring, when everything
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: happened and everybody was home, that was more challenging. But
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: now he's mostly teaching at the school right now, he's
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: his class is quarantined, so he's home like right now,
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: and I can hear him tea and he's very and
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: he's allowed to. It's not funny. He's got that, you know,
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: and he's he's chipper and he's trying to just engage them, right,
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: I'm really loud. He teaches history. I don't know what
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: your husband teaches English and history? And oh, there you go.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: So he's yeah, I'll say, he's eighth grade history.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: That's funny.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: So yeah, so he's got that whole thing going on.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: I liked my alone time, me too, saying and I
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: and I don't. Oh, every single day I'd say, Oh,
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: I finally have a day where I don't have to work,
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: like I don't have a gun to my head and
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: I'm just gonna putter around the house. That's the day
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: someone's quarantine, someone has to be remote. And so that's
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: it's just that time. I need like four hours of
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: focused time with no distractions to really get that good
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: work in for the day. And that's the hardest part
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: is just getting that four hours or so. And that's
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: and I work for much longer than four hours a
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: day because I always have a bunch of different stuff
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: going on at the same time. But to get that
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: chunk of really solid work, that's the only that's the
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: big change that's happened. It's just hard to get that.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, go ahead Monday.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: I was just gonna say, I can't imagine being under
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: a deadline to get something finished and not being able
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: to focus your time on it.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: That must be That's why I am so try being
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: like well well well out of college age, but then
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: pulling all nighters, because that's what ends up being like
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: so I am, I'm not young anymore and pulling it
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: all night or is not recoverable. Yeah, So, like I've
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: done them. I've done a few. Actually, the last two weeks,
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: I would say I had a couple really late nights,
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: like two three am, working to get stuff done, and
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: I just I just can't bounce back the way I
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: used to. You know, it's just hard. So, I mean,
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: but that's just part of that, That's part of the
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: trade off is you know, I get this amazing life
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: I get to do I get to work at home
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: and all that stuff. But then ever so often it
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: just my friends know this to hear, like it's hard
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: to get me to do stuff because I'm usually working
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: well into the evening. I've decided to take a little
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: bit of a I'm trying to sort of my workload
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: was really crazy and I'm trying to make it less
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: crazy and take on less projects for a while, just
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: to sort of calm down a little calm everything down
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: a little bit.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: So we've noticed shift in the types of stories. Hallmark
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: is writing a little bit more diverse stories in terms
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: of the lifestyles of the characters, and that's something that
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: we're very much in favor of. We're celebrating that when
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: we see it. And do you feel like this gives
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: you a little bit more freedom when you're writing totally?
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, it's just way. But it's just great. I
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: love it. And my biggest note used to be in
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: the old regime, it used to be that my characters
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: are too snarky and sarcastic and to pull back on that,
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: and that's not really a note I'm getting anymore, which
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: is great. That's because I prefer to have my characters
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: have a little bit of an edge and be funny,
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: and because comedy is sort of where my background is,
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: so I prefer that. And then also the stories we
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: can tell. They've broadened the kinds of stories that we
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: can tell as well. Like I have a couple of
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: pitches that are into them that have to do with
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: a couple dealing with infertility because my husband and I
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: dealt with that, and that's nothing I've ever seen on
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: Hallmark yet, and just just more more real stuff. It
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: could still be fun and light in Hallmarky, but just
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: dealing with a little bit more reality. But still what
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: people love about Hallmark is sort of that escape from reality.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: So it's certainly not going to be I'm not going
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: to write anything like the old school made for TV
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: very special presentation. You know. I'm not going to write
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: the Emmy winning TV movie about COVID, you know what
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: I mean. Like, that's not that's just not that's not
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: what I'm here for, and that's not right. They want
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: they want the happy ending, and I pick a lot
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: of I actually take a lot of pride in that
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: what we have done is an escape for people right
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: now that is sort of this bubble of normalcy and
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: happy endings because right now everything else is so up
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: in the air. So I'm very proud to be part
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: of that escape for people. So I'm certainly not point.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: You know, so while we are, while our movies have
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: a more realistic edge to them and tell, you know,
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: obviously show the world the diversity that's all around us
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: that we that is real. We also still are aware
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: that we are here to give people that little two
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: hour break.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we can definitely appreciate that right now.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: I'm known for loving escapist TV because I'm a big
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: baby and I need my TV to be kind of
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: like visual pros acts.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: My husband wanted to watch like the Hunters, that Hunters show,
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: and I'm like, I can't deal with like Nazis and
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: violence right now. I need to watch The Office. Yeah,
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: that's what I'm wanting. I'm like, I'm just rewatching and
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: my son's now watching it with us, which is hilarious.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: It's fun. It's so funny to see him watching The
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: Office because we can he gets it now. It's just
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: very fun. So that's what we're doing. We're completely avoiding conflict,
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: like dramatic conflict and violence.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: So yeah, okay, well you before we started recording that,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: you first of all, Taking a Shot at Love was
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: the first movie in the New Year New Movies slash
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Winterfest series, and Wehnnie and I I honestly can't remember
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: what I rated it, but I do know that as
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: we finished the series, we both agreed that that was
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: our favorite of the five. We loved it the rate
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: one liners, and you were kind enough to listen to that.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: And I've just pulled up my notes because I have
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: forgotten what we said. But I understand you might have
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: some thoughts for us and some.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: Of the questions we asked, Well you, if you have,
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: can you tell me? Maybe you can tell me, like
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: what your burning questions were if you go back. But
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: I remember one of them was why is he staying
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: at a hotel? So I am going to look at
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: the script because I am almost positive that I have
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: a line in that script.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: That we missed it.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: And if I didn't have it and it got cut,
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: see now, it's entirely possible. I'm gonna look at it
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: right now. It's entirely possible that there was this line
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: and then it did not make it into the final edit.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: So I'm gonna type, I'm gonna do a search for
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: the word hotel. Here we go. Let's see. Ah. I
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: don't know if this made it in there, but the
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: line was he says, are you sure this guest house
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: is is good as the hotel? And his agent says,
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: trust me, it's better, and he says, then why isn't
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: it already booked up like the hotels are, because I
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: had it that the hotels were all booked in town.
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: Oh that makes.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: So I don't know if that line made it in.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: It is possible that we skated over that one line.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: So you're not, it's not you know, the beauty of
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: a Hallmark movie is that you do not need to
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: completely laser focus on it like you're watching like a
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: Christopher Nolan movie where you're gonna miss it. You're right,
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: so you need to like, you know, I get that
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: people are mostly doing something else or on their phones
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: when they're watching the movies. But yes, that's that was
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: the answer to that question. And I don't know if
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: it's still made it, but that's the answer. The other
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: reason that I give the joke answer why isn't he
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: staying at a hotel? And the answer is because then
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: there wouldn't be a Hallmark movie.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Of course, because so.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Like when when I hear reviews, sometimes I laugh because
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: it's like, well, you know, it's I always say, you know,
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: it's not a documentary, so obviously there has to be
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: a buy in to the situation. So obviously, you know,
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: like we have to get them doers to stay in
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: the guest house, because that's the cute thing about it, right,
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: So you know, we try and get through that the
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: why of it, without spending too much time explaining, because
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: it's just sort of a buye You just sort have
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: to be like, yeah, okay, well that's a Hallmark movie
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: and that's what's happening. That's so like we try and
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: explain it and not have plot holes, but at the
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: same time, we don't want to spend an entire page
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: explaining that the hotels are booked in Aravon and why
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: because you know, I had a whole thing in an
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: old draft about how there was a hockey tournament or
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: winter fest people are staying there, or there's only one
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: hotel in town, and it's you know, I had a
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: whole thing about it. But then ultimate they just tell
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: you to cut it because we're we're always running along.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it works better keys in her backyard of course,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: of course, because we can get there during the ice storm.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I always say, because movie, because script, That's why.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: That's the answer. The other one was, yes, Avon is
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: a small enough town that you can leave a key
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: undo the mat like, but I will say there has
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: been a rash of car thefts in Avon because people
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: are coming over the hill like in in roving gangs
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: and driving around all the neighborhoods and trying to steal
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: cars with open doors because people leave their cars open
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: and their keys in the car.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: Now, yeah, so we all we we know from being
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: from Los Angeles that we do not leave our keys
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: in our cars and our car doors unlocked, and we
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: do not leave open things, and we do not. We
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: just don't, Like I've never understood that when I moved here.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: I still I always lock my car at night and
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: put the keys inside, but apparently here people don't. And that's, uh,
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: that's where that's coming from. So that's another question you had.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: And now the Huga thing, Oh yes, so that was
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: a bigger part of the earlier drafts where that's just her,
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: that's her thing. I have all these books in my
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: living room about Hyuga and I had and I was
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: into this before Frozen took it because Frozen the Musical
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: made a song about it. But I was always like
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: into this before. I was into this concept a long
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: time ago, and I always wanted to use it, and
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: I just they needed a way to kind of introduce
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: that word that wasn't sort of, it just needed to
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: people needed to see the word, and because there was,
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: I had a whole bunch of jokes about it and stuff,
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: So I think they just wanted to see it on
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: the signs. So we just decided that her Norwegian family
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: named it that because they came from Norway. That was
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: That was the quick solution to them wanting the audience
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: to see the word, to understand why he was having
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: trouble pronouncing it or any of that stuff.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: So the sign was created for the movie.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: Then yes, yes, okay.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: I have a question which you can choose not to
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: answer to protect the innocent. But can Luke McFarland skate?
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: Yes, okay he can.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: Does he skating double?
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: He did have a double for some of the hockey bits.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: He's actually what's funny is that he is a Juilliard
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: trained actor and took dance and was a better dancer,
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: this is what Alexa said than she was. So when
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: he does that puro weet, that was legit, Like he
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: already knew how to do that hockey. He's Canadian, so
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: he knew how to skate, because that's part of that's
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: just the rule of being a Canadian is that you
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: know how I skate. And he learned how to juggle
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: the pup on the stick because of the script. And
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: he sent me a video of him practicing and learning
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: and and he was, you know, showing me, who's so
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: excited that he learned how to do it. So, you know,
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: for the hockey action scenes, they had a bunch of
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: actual hockey players wearing the Rangers stuff filming that. And
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: I actually have one of those. I have one of
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: those jerseys. They put shirm on the back there and
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: I love that. Yeah, so I love it. I'm so excited.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: And the Wolfpack, you know, that's the local. I was
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: actually kind of hoping to get a Wolfpack jersey because
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: that's actually a real, the real minor league team. That's
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: why I said it here because it made sense to
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: the story completely that he would have to come to
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: the minor league team to get back up, to get ready,
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: and that it's right, we are a suburb of Hartford,
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: so it actually legitimately made sense, and so that's why
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: I said it. That's why it worked to set it here,
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: because I could have said any movie here that I've
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: had this whole time, but this made sense to me.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: Like One Royal Holiday was also set in Connecticut and
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: shot in Connecticut, but I made up a town name
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: based in a combination of Simsbury, which is the next
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: town over from Avon, and Kent, which is a really
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: beautiful town a few minutes away, and I made it Knsbury. Yes,
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: but they shot it in a different, totally different part
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: of Connecticut because it was one of the first movies
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: back after COVID, and it was shot in the corner
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: of Connecticut that basically nobody lives in and everybody just
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: kind of quarantined for two weeks, and then they made
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: the movie.
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: Well, so we didn't review that one, but I did
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: watch it, and I just as a side note, wanted
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: to say I really enjoyed that that movie made me okay.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: I thought there were some sweet moments. I loved the
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Queen's character and I love her warm and loving she
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: was in that movie. And I really enjoyed that.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: That cast will never get again unless they do a sequel,
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: because they are all huge Broadway stars and I just
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: cannot believe we got them, but they had nothing else
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: to do, so they did it. They are I mean
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: Victoria Clark who played the Queen. It's a gigantic She's
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: a Tony Award winning Broadway star, Laura Osna been on
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: Broadway forever, and you know Aaron Debait, the Prince is
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: the lead Mulin rouge. And then the girl played Sarah,
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: the Mayor is in Hamilton when she's Eliza and Hamilton
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: on Broadway while it was running, and so it's like
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: this huge, huge group of fabulousness, and just I needed
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: to do a sequel where they sing.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: Yes, not just a quick Christmas Carol clip.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: Well, they didn't want I mean everyone gets a lot
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: of people got on me for not letting them start
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: having like more singing, but that was not my choice.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: I would have had them doing the entire thing as
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: a musical, but they did not want to. They went,
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: oh my gosh, they wanted to be act tours.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Now you did was that film during the winter in Connecticut?
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Because the snow looked very real in that.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: That was summer and it was hot. Oh you can't.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: I can't even tell you. I had the one day
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: they finally let me go on set, I had to
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: go get a COVID test in the morning, and then
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: I could go over there, and I brought my two
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: friends that are the biggest Tallmark fans. I was going
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: to have everyone I know be in this movie before
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: it was COVID, because I could have had like everyone
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: I know the extras. But this wasn't gonna work now,
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: So I've got a couple of my friends. They had
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: to go bring all their the cutest winter clothes they
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: had and do wardrobe. So I'm like in shorts and
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: the T shirt and flip flops and they are in
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: like heaviest winter coats, sweating just you know, in hats,
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: and they're in it. They're in the movie at the
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: beginning when at the doughnut shop. They're the ones that
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: just get served right before she goes to the counter.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: And it's so funny because we have yeah, so we
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: have these pictures of the two of them just just
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: dying and I'm in shorts, and it's just it was funny.
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: It's like a hot it was the hottest day of
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: the whole summer.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: Of course. Yeah, there's the scenes where they're snowed in
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: and there's big mounds of snow. It looked very good.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: I was very impressed.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: So that, Yeah, they do a really uh this this
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: crew in Connecticut. They've done a lot of really good
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: stuff for Hallmark, and we were trying to figure out
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: another movie to do because I really love working with them.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: But they're really good at and a lot of it
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: is post production digital stuff too. But the fake snow
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: looks great and they kind of melt the edges of
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: the cotton so it looks like the edge of snow.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: They have a whole they have a whole way of
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: doing it. That's really cool.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: Well, it's coming on the way because my husband and
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: I were watching one of the earliest countdown to Christmas
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: movies from how it was old, and it was very
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: clearly like cotton batting rolled out on the ground that
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: we were walking on. Like, they've definitely improved there.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: I mean just digital snow, I mean just digital snow
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: has changed it all right, that they can literally just
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: make snowfall.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's great, yeah, digitally.
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: I have a quick question back to taking a shot
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: at Love now, was there some sort of deal between
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: the New York Rangers, Because I was surprised that you
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: guys got to like for Luke to like wear that
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: merchandise and all that stuff.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: Throughout the movie.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they sent the script to the Rangers and asked
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: if they could do it, and they really were into
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: it and it Actually now they're so happy with the
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: publicity they got and sort of you know that that
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: they loved what happened. And now they're kind of interested
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: in other you know, Masive Square Garden as a company
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: is interested in other connections. And I and and I
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: do have something going on, uh like with them, but
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: I can't I really can't say what it is. But
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: but but there's stuff, you know, it's it's cool, it's
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: a nice little I liked the I liked it because
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: you know, it's hard enough to get guys to watch Hallmark,
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: but at least this movie, I felt like had enough
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: stuff to kind of keep them okay, keep them interested,
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: you know, air hockey and hockey and.
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: Oh I love that scene so much.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: Guys stuff. And I had a lot more guys stuff
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: before I kind of went away, like I had well
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: in my mind, they were a lot of the stuff
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: was in at a pond. I was really hoping they
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: would get a pond for a lot of these hockey
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: scenes between like that she had a pond at her
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: property because I was suring this neighbor of mine who
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: has a really beautiful big house and a cute, super
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: cute cottage and a huge pond that's always frozen over
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: and there's always kids skating on it. So that was
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: sort of my vision of like where Felix, that the
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: boy and everybody, that's where they were doing all that
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: stuff was going to be on the pond. But they couldn't.
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: Oddly enough, they could not find a way to make
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: that happen in Canada.
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: Well, speaking of Felix, I loved that little character. The
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: boy who played him was awesome, So awesome.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: Boy, answer amazing, right, can you believe that? Yeah? He
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: actually was Billy Elliott on I guess whatever Canadians version
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: of Broadway is. So he was legit like and he
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: played hockey. I could not believe we cast the actual
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: real version of this character. It just it was perfect And.
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: I really liked that. And tell me, was this part
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: of your writing was that it was like this micro
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: messaging of you can do both. You can be a
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: dancer and you can be a hockey player. You don't
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: have to box. Yeah, I loved it.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: Yes, that was very on purpose. My son loves to
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: play tackle football and it is a great actor and
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: saxophone player, and you know I always tell him just
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: be you got to be. You know, he's a renaissance,
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: renaissance man in training. Just go to do you know,
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: a jack of all trades kind of a thing. It's hard, though,
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: It's hard to be a kid like that, you know,
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: when you're not kind of into your one thing and
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: you have lots of different things. But you know, it
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: actually makes it a little harder.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, especially go ahead. I was gonna say.
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: We are both moms of tweens and teens as well,
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: so we understand. Yeah, yeah, they understand. We understand definitely well.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: And I think you know, it's also hard if you're
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: one thing isn't soccer or baseball, right, Like my total
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: thirteen year old his thing pre COVID was bowling. Like
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: he's a bowler and bowls competitively, which is bizarre that
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: it's a thing, but that's his thing. And you know,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: people always kind of give you a second glance when
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: and that's like his quote sport. But I think it
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: is hard.
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: Hard. Yeah, that's amazing though. That's really cool.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: He loves it and I love that it's always indoors
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: in air conditions.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: Oh for sure, Well he doesn't. You know, soccer, soccer
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: and Valencia, which is where we lived. It was brutal
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: when we when he played, uh, when I was hoping
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: he would be a soccer guy because I played soccer,
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: and I was hoping. I was hoping he'd be a
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: swimmer because I was a swimmer. And none of those
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: things happened, and I had to sort of get over it.
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: And we finally figured out how much he loves football
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: when he started playing flag. So that's his sport and
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: his Jewish mother, you know, bot complaining tackle is not
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: great for me. But you know, they have they have
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: a lot more safety rules and helmets in place now.
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: Then I'm not that worried. I'm not as worried about it, like,
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: but yes, it be. He also is a really great actor,
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: and that's definitely a hard thing to balance. It's like
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: it's like high school musical based. Oh yeah, yeah right,
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: I mean so you know, it's it's tough to be, yes,
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: it's just tough to be anything outside the main the
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: mainstream at this age.
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's show what of high school musicals?
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: Wait what? Oh, I haven't seen it.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: Oh, it's so good. Honestly, even as an adult, you'll
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: enjoy it. High School Musical, The Musical, the series.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: I think I watched one. I think that I think
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: I watched one, but I wasn't paying close enough attention.
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: I'm obsessed with WandaVision right now, like completely obsessed with it.
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: So that's my my one appointment television.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: I haven't watched that yet, Megan, have you watched Oh
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: my god, no, because I'm afraid I won't be able
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: to follow what I've seen pretty much all of the
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: Marvel movies, but I don't have like all of the
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: details in my brain. So I kind of feel like,
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: am I going to know what's happening.
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: You? I think you will, okay.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: Well, Also, we have the Internet, so I feel like
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: I could maybe look things up.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: If you're a fan of if you're a fan of
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: television and just sitcoms and all that, it is just genius.
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: It's I can't even tell you how perfectly they do
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: the genres of sitcoms in the years that they're doing
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: as they go up in years, from like the Black
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: and White Ones to the Brady Bunch, you know, tied
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: to the eighties, full house stuff. That's where we're at
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: now is the eighties ones. It was so genius and
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: I can't wait because I feel like this week they're
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: going to do Like Friends or something or some you
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: know those nineties sitcoms. I cannot wait. It's just the
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: best as a writer. And I'm really critical of other
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: TVs stuff, of course, and it's hard to watch sort
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: of just for fun, but my mind gets blown every week.
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: I have to watch it. I'll watch it this weekend.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: Try And I know me too. So you talked a
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: little bit about the Spring movie you have coming up.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: Can you tell us what else you're currently working on?
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: So, besides the one for Spring and the one for
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: next winter, I have a Christmas movie that didn't quite
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: make it in time for last year, so we're making
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: it for this year. So I already wrote it, which
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: is cool. So I know I have a Christmas movie coming,
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: not as high profile as one royal holiday, but I
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: think it's just a nice little Christmas movie. And then
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: I have two very high profile projects that I cannot
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: talk about that are both involving sort of name people
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: and things.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: So I can't say anything on everything.
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: It's all okay, you know, until everything's always under the vest,
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: until it's not. And sure, so, but I'm really excited
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: about those. And what's fun is that there's a whole
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: team uh in New York City for Hallmark, and it's
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: really been fun to kind of work with them. Just
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: we all feel like we're all kind of you know,
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: we're all we're the East Coast crew doing our thing,
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: and that's been really great. And then I just have
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: a few, like you know, pitches in development, and then
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: every and then people have a couple of rewrites maybe
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: that I may I might do. So I'm like, usually
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: I have like eight things on my desk and right
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: now I have four. So it's it's on purpose. Though,
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: I'm just trying to take a breath because it's just
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: been crazy, crazy, crazy, but in a good way. I'm
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: grateful for it. But I definitely need to have a
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: little bit of balance.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: Yes, that was my word of the year. It's not
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: going so well.
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: I'm just forcing it because my blood I was starting
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: to not you know, I started to feel not well
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: and you know, just from stress and everything. And I
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: you know, that's one thing. I'm so grateful for all
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: this work and this all the hallmark success at the
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: same time, though, you know, I work myself into the ground,
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: and you know, there has to be a work life balance,
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: especially when you have kids. And yes, that's kind of
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to balance it all this year a little
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: bit better.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: And where can people find more from you? Where's the
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: best place for them to spook with what's going on.
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: So I am not the best about my social media.
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: It's usually when something's coming out that I really get
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: back on there and post stuff. So I would say
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: Instagram is okay, I think it's I think it's Julie
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: Sherman Wolf, right, it's Julie uh and then like Underscore
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: Sherman Underscore Wolf and then Twitter is at sherm wool
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: and I do a lot of live tweeting when things air.
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: Yay, that makes me so excited.
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: But I'm sorry, go ahead. Yeah, I've been generally not
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: around on Twitter. I don't really have time to like
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: maintain it, but but yes, when things air, I'm there
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: for sure. So yeah, so I'll be around and I
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: always engage, trying and engage with as many people as
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: I can. It's really fun to engage with the actors too.
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: They're usually live tweeting as well, right, yeah, yeah.
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: And it's you know, it's funny because the East Coast
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: feed is easier, and then it's like now it's midnight
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: and the West Coast, so I'm like, I don't know
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: if I can do this again. You guys are gonna
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: have to. You're gonna have to come out on the
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: East Coast feed.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: Well, it's funny.
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: I do watch it in the East Coast feed, me too.
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: I is the friendly app and everything else in East
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: Coast time, so yeah.
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: Perfect, Yeah, that's pretty much it. And then there's a
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: I do have a Facebook page, says Julie Sherman, Wolf Writer,
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: and I kind of posted that every so often. Time terrible.
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: I should be better at it, but it's just a
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: time suck. If once I get on Instagram and start
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: caring about that, it's really hard to It takes a
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: long time. I don't know how you guys do it, like,
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: it just takes a long time, and it's really hard
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: to maintain that social media presence. It is. It's really hard.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's definitely a big port.
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: Whole other job totally.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: Well, this was so fun. I can't thank you enough
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: for joining us. I'm so glad you agreed to do this.
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: it so awesome.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: We're gonna leave links to everywhere you can find Julie
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: in our show notes. You can also if you don't
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: have We've sung its praises often. But the Hallmark Checklist
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: app Hallmark Movie Checklist app. You can search by a
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: movie and it'll let you know when movies are airing,
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: so past movies you can find them so you can
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: catch up, you can record them, you can watch them
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: and thank you for listening to this episode of the podcast.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: As always, if you enjoyed this, we would love it
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: if you would leave a rating and or a review.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: Of course we love them, but it also helps people
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: find us in the Apple podcast community. Until next time,
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: have a great week.
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: Bye bye